Tag Archives: #insurancegivesback

Corporate Social Responsibility, Insurance Industry

Helping the community get through a tough time

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Tough times bring out the best in many people, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is no exception.

Citizens around the world are donating to crisis response organizations, sewing masks and gowns for medical workers, delivering groceries to homebound neighbors and boarding shelter animals.

Corporations also are rising to the occasion. MetLife (a Triple-I member company) is providing parking lots at its St. Louis office location for the local hospital, Mercy South to use for coronavirus drive-through testing.

And the MetLife Foundation has committed to donating $1 million to food banks across the U.S. to help them deal with increased demand for their services as a result of coronavirus.

Food banks face the challenge of getting shelf-stable food into people’s homes as quickly as possible, especially now that vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, have been advised to practice social distancing. In addition, food banks face greater need from families with children who no longer have access to meals at schools.

MetLife Foundation will donate funds to food banks in communities where MetLife, Inc. has a significant presence, such as the greater New York City area, Cary, N.C., Tampa, Fla., and Warwick, R.I.

“We want to help those impacted by coronavirus,” said Mike Zarcone, head of Corporate Affairs for MetLife and Chairman of MetLife Foundation. “That includes the communities where we work and live. We know that children out of school and seniors face food insecurity as a result of COVID-19, and we are committed to help.”

Prudential also is helping. Over the weekend, the Newark, N.J.-based insurer donated more than 150,000 protective face masks and respirators to the state.

The gift will benefit health workers, some of whom have complained about having to reuse surgical masks amid an increasing shortage of supplies.

“A least one New Jersey hospital” NJ.com reported, “is now down to a four-day supply of gowns and surgical masks.”

The masks and respirators, expected to provide a two-week respite for hospitals, were in storage at the company’s Newark headquarters. They had been stockpiled after the 9/11 terror attacks as part of the company’s emergency preparedness efforts.

If your company is helping those affected by the pandemic, email me at marias@iii.org and tell me about it.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Recruiting young workers through a culture of volunteerism

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photo courtesy of State Farm®

Did you know that volunteering your time and expertise can make you happier and healthier? It’s been shown that unpaid work for the good of others enables people to make new friends, learn new skills and experience reduced stress levels.

And it’s not just individuals who benefit. Companies that create a culture of volunteering have better employee morale, workplace atmosphere and brand perception. A Deloitte study found that a large majority (89 percent) of employees think that companies that sponsor volunteer activities offer a better work environment. Volunteer activities were also reported to be more effective at boosting staff morale than company-sponsored happy hours, and more than three-quarters of workers said that volunteering is essential to employee well-being.

The insurance industry is no slouch when it comes to volunteering. The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) has contributed more than 300,000 volunteer hours to hundreds of community nonprofit organizations since its inception in 1994. The industry gives back to communities in significant and varied ways including pro bono and skills-sharing support to nonprofit organizations, disaster response, relief and recovery, employee-driven outreach in local communities and many other creative corporate social responsibility initiatives.

The industry is also hoping to recruit and retain workers by emphasizing the culture of volunteering. On April 10, the IICF released a white paper documenting the findings of its Millennial Ideas Summit. The summit convened in late 2018 with more than 50 young leaders and emerging talent from across the insurance industry to discuss key topics and challenges facing the industry. These included talent and recruitment of millennials; technology, innovation and change; and social responsibility, particularly the industry’s philanthropic response following natural disasters.

The paper, What Millennials Want, how are we engaging the millennial workforce, concluded that communicating to the younger workforce that insurance is a business of service and one that helps people in their times of need is critically important to millennials, who want opportunities to give back and make a difference through experiences and grassroots ways that help their communities.

April is National Volunteer Month. What is your company doing to promote volunteerism? Let us know in the comments section.